


Before We Fall

by Caiternate



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Everybody Dies, First Kiss, M/M, Post-Canon season 9-ish, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-12
Updated: 2013-12-12
Packaged: 2018-01-04 09:48:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1079512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caiternate/pseuds/Caiternate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers: They win. They save the world.<br/>Spoilers: there's a cost. And of course, when it comes down to the very end of it all, there are some things that cannot be left unsaid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before We Fall

All is gone. 

All is dark.

All is pain.

Dean is alone.

Or, nearly, anyway. Bleeding out, here, lightheaded and fading, he has lost Kevin, whom he had sworn to protect. He has lost Charlie, who had returned to help in this one final battle, returned to help her family. 

Sam is safe. He doesn’t know this for sure, but he must believe it with all that is left of his heart, or everything was for nothing. Sam is alive, Sam is safe.

 

Castiel isn’t. 

Castiel is here, only a few feet away. Their enemy is gone, but they are done for. He drags himself to where the fallen angel lies, eyes half closed, and Dean had thought he had endured all the pain he could take that night but nothing quite compares to the ache in his chest at the sight of blood- hot, red, human- staining the front of Cas’ shirt and seeping into the floor below where there should only be pure blue grace. 

 

“Cas?” Dean whispers. This is a time for quiet.

Castiel’s eyes flutter. He turns to look at Dean, raggedly breathing.

“Cas, I’m sorry. You shouldn’t be here” _you shouldn’t be dying. you were never meant to die at all._

“Don’t be.” Castiel says, trying to pull himself vertical. “This is what I wanted.”

His eyes are clear when they meet Dean’s and even now they are something extraordinary.

Dean moves closer, reaches out to touch Cas’ cheek because they’re _dying_ , dammit, and he’s not going to let this go.

“Am I gonna see you upstairs, Cas?”

“I” Castiel chokes on his word, clears his throat with a low, wet, awful-sounding cough.

“I cannot say, Dean.” He pauses a moment, takes a ragged breath. “I do not know.”

So this might be it, then.

“Cas, I’m sorry. I wish I hadn’t waited this long, I wish I-”

“ _Dean”_ Cas says forcefully. He’s right- there isn’t time for a long speech. So Dean abandons words altogether, leans across and kisses Castiel. The kiss tastes like blood. It’s sad as heaven and bitter as hell and aching as damned, dirty Earth. After a moment, Cas kisses back, lifting one hand to brush Dean’s face and settle across his neck, and Dean isn’t sure which of them started crying but there are tears dampening his cheeks now.

 

And then Cas’ arm goes slack.

His eyes are closed now.

There is no flash of white light, no charcoal shadow of wings.

Dean bows his head as if in prayer on the chest of his angel and waits for the end. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is Julia's fault. Happy birthday, Julia. I hope this hurt as much to read as it did to write.


End file.
